Your Friday News Briefing: Typhoon Mangkhut, China, Turkey

Good morning. Typhoon Mangkhut’s new path, Fan Bingbing’s mysterious disappearance and the Turkish central bank’s desperate defiance. Here’s what you need to know:

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CreditAgustin Paullier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

•Storm watch.

Typhoon Mangkhut shifted southward and is expected to start lashing the Philippines’ largest and most populous island within hours with heavy rains and 127-mile-an-hour winds. Mangkhut is also forecast to strike the country’s agricultural center, raising fears for the rice and corn harvests.

The storm is stirring memories of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people.

In the U.S., Hurricane Florence neared the Carolina coast, with the storm growing in size and winds whipping the coast.

Here’s more on what to expect from the two storms on opposite ends of the earth.

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CreditSteven Senne/Associated Press

•2.6 million.

That’s how many Asians have entered the U.S. since 2010 — more than double the number of Latin Americans, according an analysis of new Census Bureau figures. And in some states, nearly half of new immigrants are college educated.

One of China’s most famous actresses, above, who has had roles in the “Iron Man” and “X-Men” franchises, hasn’t been seen publicly for more than three months.

Ms. Fan’s disappearance, which has fueled concern among fans and a flurry of rumors, appears to be related to a government investigation into tax evasion in the film business. But she hasn’t been charged with a crime, and it’s unclear whether she is even under investigation.

In other celebrity news, two South Korean pop idols were fired from their label after they announced they were dating.

Avoiding romantic relationships is an unspoken rule of the highly regimented K-pop world and “no dating” clauses in contracts were once commonplace.

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CreditRT channel, via Associated Press

•Spies? No, we’re just tourists.

The two Russian men, above, Britain charged with poisoning the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal surfaced on Russia’s state-funded RT television network.

They said they’d been particularly interested in the city’s cathedral spire and 14th-century clock.

Separately, a male Pussy Riot activist whose protests included running onto the field during the World Cup final has been hospitalized in a Moscow toxicology ward. The group said he had lost his sight, speech and mobility and that it suspected he had been poisoned.

Today’s word: skulduggery. It can mean either underhanded behavior or crafty deception, and is usually used in the context of espionage. The noun’s origins are unclear but its first known use was in 1856.

Business

• Hypebeast has gone from a single streetwear fashion blog in 2005 to a publicly traded media empire with legions of fans. Now the company, based in Hong Kong, is adding a festival in Brooklyn to its repertoire.

• Facebook is “better prepared”’ to fight election interference around the world, Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post. He said that the company has “developed sophisticated systems that combine technology and people” to fight back.

In the News

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CreditFocke Strangmann/EPA, via Shutterstock

• Catholic Church turmoil: 3,677 children aged 13 or younger were sexually abused by clergy members of German Catholic churches, according to a new study. And Pope Francis has ordered an investigation into allegations that a West Virginia bishop sexually harassed adults. [both from The New York Times]

• Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader, rebuffed criticism of her country’s Rohingya crisis and urged the international community to understand “all sides” of what the U.N. has called genocide. [The New York Times]

• Some Dua Lipa fans were forcefully removed from the English singer’s concert in Shanghai last night, for dancing and, apparently, waving pro-gay rights flags. [BBC]

• An American aid program in Afghanistan to help 75,000 women get jobs, promotions and internships has been a huge flop, having helped only 55 in three years, a U.S. government watchdog said. [The New York Times]

• A serial dine-and-dash dater who left women he’d met online in a lurch now faces up to 13 years in prison. [Guardian]

Noteworthy

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CreditKathy Townsend

• Sea turtles that have ingested as little as 14 pieces of plastic have a heightened risk of dying, according to a new study out of Australia. And, unfortunately, more than half the sea turtles around the world have eaten some plastic debris.

• Rihanna’s hugely popular Fenty makeup brand diversified beauty. Now she has a lingerie line. It’s all about “women being celebrated in all forms and all body types and all races and cultures,” the pop star said.

• Overlooked no more: The latest in our series of long-missing obits is of Marthe McKenna, a skilled nurse at a German military hospital in Belgium during World War I who was also a spy secretly helping the British plot attacks. (She wrote a memoir Winston Churchill couldn’t put down.)

Large multiple pregnancies, usually ending in premature birth, are quite risky. Previously, the only North American quints to survive infancy were Canada’s Dionne sisters, born in 1934. Their story was tragic, involving callous commercial exploitation.

The Fischers, despite an insatiable press, were determined to shun the limelight. The quints, four girls and a boy, had six other siblings. Today, many still live in or near Aberdeen, working in elder care, sales and other jobs.

They remain close. In 2013, all 11 gathered for the quints’ 50th birthday: “We’re just like anybody else,” Cathy Bales told a local paper. “Working and trying to make a living.”

Otherwise, she added, “I don’t know if we would be as close, tight-knit, and grounded as we are.”

Nancy Wartik wrote today’s Back Story.

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